Inverse analysis of geomechanical parameters by the artificial bee colony algorithm and multi-output support vector machine

Abstract

Geomechanical parameters play a very important role in geotechnical engineering design and construction. Inverse analysis provides a powerful tool to characterize geomechanical parameters based on the behaviour of rock under certain boundary conditions. In this paper, a new method for inverse analysis that takes advantage of multi-output support vector machine (MSVM) and artificial bee colony (ABC) is proposed and applied to solving a real field problem. MSVM is used to map the relationship between geomechanical parameters and displacements. ABC is adopted in inverse analysis to find the optimal geomechanical parameters. The proposed method is used to recognize the parameters of the permanent shiplock slope of the Three Gorges in China. Results show that the proposed method can effectively determine geomechanical parameters.